diff --git a/cmake/flags.cmake b/cmake/flags.cmake
index ef31c252038ce18655913c0f41343fe6dc7dbb86..d00a9bb3a30cfb16623e073414088059481c3e1a 100644
--- a/cmake/flags.cmake
+++ b/cmake/flags.cmake
@@ -9,6 +9,11 @@ function(CheckCompilerCXX11Flag)
         if(${CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION} VERSION_LESS 4.8)
             message(FATAL_ERROR "Unsupported GCC version. GCC >= 4.8 required.")
         endif()
+        # TODO(qijun) gcc 4.9 or later versions raise SEGV due to the optimization problem.
+        # Use Debug mode instead for now.
+        if(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_GREATER 4.9 OR CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_VERSION VERSION_EQUAL 4.9) 
+            set(CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE "Debug" CACHE STRING "" FORCE)
+        endif()
     elseif(CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "AppleClang" OR CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER_ID STREQUAL "Clang")
         # cmake >= 3.0 compiler id "AppleClang" on Mac OS X, otherwise "Clang"
         # Apple Clang is a different compiler than upstream Clang which havs different version numbers.